1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for guiding articles of food discharged from an automatic vending machine, and more particularly to an apparatus for guiding articles of food discharged from an automatic vending machine, which is designed to allow the user to take out easily the guided articles of food which were frozen in a freezing storage part or heated in a heating unit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 is a side elevational view in section which shows schematically a conventional automatic vending machine (disclosed in Japanese Utility model Laid-open Publication No. Heisei 3-104287 (published on Oct. 29, 1991)).
As illustrated in the drawing, there is provided a hollow hexahedral cabinet 10. The cabinet 10 is provided at its upper part with a freezing storage part 20. A food heating unit 40 which is adapted to heat articles of food fallen from the freezing storage 20 is located under the freezing storage part 20 and at a lower part of the cabinet 10. Provided below the freezing storage part 20 is a heating and dispensing part 30 for dispensing heated articles of food. The heating and dispensing part 30 has a guiding bracket 60 to guide discharge of food heated by the heating unit 40.
The freezing storage part 20 is usually maintained in the temperature of -18.degree. C. to -20.degree. C. and contains therein a plurality of food stacking receptacles 21 spaced from one another at predetermined distance. A chute 22 is provided under the food stacking receptacles 21 so that the articles of food in the food stacking receptacles 21 fall down to the heating unit 40.
The heating unit 40 is provided at its upper and lower ends with an upper shutter 41 and a lower shutter 42 which are capable of sliding laterally so that the upper and lower shutters 41 and 42 open or close an upper inlet and a lower outlet of the heating unit 40. Accordingly, when an article of food falls down from the freezing storage part 20, the upper shutter 41 is opened to permit the article to pass therethrough and just after the passage is closed. The article in the heating unit 40 is then heated for about one minute by a heating device such as a magnetron (not shown). Thereafter, the lower shutter 42 is opened so that the heated article falls down into the guiding bracket 60 along a guide slope plate 60b of the guiding bracket 60 to be taken out of the bracket.
As described above, since article of food heated in the heating unit 40 falls down freely and is received in the guiding bracket 60, the user can take out the article through a discharging outlet 60a.
Reference numerals, 45 and 46 not described designate pinions which are rotated by a driving motor (not shown). Also, reference numerals 47 and 48 designate racks which are engaged with the pinions 47 and 48 respectively to cause the upper and lower shutters 41 and 42 to slide.
However, if the above-mentioned conventional automatic vending machine deals with fatty food such as fried potato, fried drumstick of chicken, hamburger and the like, the guide slope plate must have a rapid inclined angle of at least 45.degree. in order to cause the article of food to fall down smoothly during its discharge, whereby the guiding bracket 60 is increased in its height. Hence, when the automatic vending machine is designed to have a fixed height, the stacking receptacles 21 are decreased in its height, thereby decreasing receptive capacity for food.
Furthermore, since articles of food sold by the abovementioned automatic vending machine are very fatty and wet, the slope plate 60b is gradually smeared and deposited with fat and moisture. As the fat and moisture are deposited on the slope plate for a long time, the heated food is hard to slide smoothly along the slope plate, so that the food is caught by the deposited fat and moisture. Hence, since the user must put deep his hand into the discharging outlet 60a in order to take out the caught food, the conventional automatic vending machine is troublesome in use.